The academic job is primarily about getting funding for further work. If ten years of work were proven wrong, the academic may worry that funding agencies may s

The academic job is primarily about getting funding for further work. If ten years of work were proven wrong, the academic may worry that funding agencies may stop funding them. "You've been doing the wrong work for a decade!" So while the academic may not mind being proven wrong in their hypotheses/results/conclusions, they may stress about not being able to get more funding.